FIRST STEPS
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction by Jan Story

Standard Disclaimer: All characters � by Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, etc.

For my daughter Meg, and for small martial artists everywhere.

Nothing to do.

She was tired of coloring and there was nothing on TV. She couldn't go to
the park without a grownup, and the only games she knew needed somebody else
to play with her.

"Play with me, nee-chan?"

Nabiki was on her stomach on the living room floor, her feet crossed in the
air. There was a little pile of coins in front of her and she was
alternately flicking the counters on her abacus with the end of her pencil
and making entries in a little notebook. Akane couldn't understand what
Nabiki found so fascinating about coins and numbers. "Go away, brat," Nabiki
said without looking up.

Nabiki called her a brat! They weren't allowed to call names! "Ohhh! I'm
gonna tell!" She ran to the kitchen door, and stopped. She wasn't allowed in
the kitchen either.

Kasumi was. She and Okaasan were in there, wearing identical frilly aprons.
There was a funny smell, like something burning, and Kasumi was crying.

"We all make mistakes when we're learning," she could hear Okaasan saying to
Kasumi. "The important thing is to remember what you did wrong, and then you
won't make that mistake again."

Akane turned away. They hadn't even seen her. Okaasan was spending more and
more time with Kasumi these days, teaching her mommy-things, cooking and
sewing. Everybody praised Kasumi because she was so good at mommy-things.
Everybody praised Nabiki because she was so good at numbers. Nobody praised
Akane for anything. And now there was going to be another baby, the boy
Otousan had always wanted. The boy she was supposed to have been. Nobody had
time for Akane any more. They didn't care if she had nothing to do. They
didn't care if Nabiki called her names.

She didn't even notice at first that she was shuffling down the passage that
led to the dojo. She wasn't allowed there either; Otousan said it wasn't a
place for little girls. But now that she was in the passage, she could hear
a faint sound, different from the rhythmic shouts of the students. There
weren't supposed to be any students there today anyway. The sound made her
curious.

She peered through the open door. Otousan was in there alone. She didn't
know exactly what he was doing, but it was beautiful to watch, smooth and
patterned as a dance. She wished she had that kind of grace and power.
Almost without realizing it, she began moving with him, trying to copy
everything he did. She felt stiff and clumsy compared to his fluid
movements, and before long she was confused and lost. She watched again,
until he slowed down and she thought she understood what he was doing, and
began to copy him again. Twice more she got lost, waited, then resumed when
she thought she could follow again.

Soun Tendou finished his kata and bowed to the kamidana. Akane bowed
likewise. Then he turned and faced his youngest daughter.

Akane was suddenly scared. Otousan had told her the dojo wasn't a place for
little girls, and now he had seen her peeping! Not only peeping, but trying
to copy what went on inside! She backed away, eyes wide, afraid of what
Otousan might do to her.

Soun Tendou was astonished. Akane had done amazingly well for an untrained
beginner. It hadn't occurred to him before to train any of his daughters. He
knew that times were changing, there were women at the tournaments, some
schools were even recognizing women masters. But to him the Art was still a
thing for men. When he saw himself training his heir, the faceless figure
was always a son... he had been so happy and proud when Kimiko told him the
new baby would be a boy at long last. Still, it would be several years
before his son was old enough to train. It wouldn't hurt to teach Akane a
little, and it would be good practice for training the boy. He smiled at
her. "That was very good, Akane-chan. Would you like to learn?"

Akane couldn't believe her ears. Otousan was offering to teach her? Teach
her to move like that? He thought she was good at something? Good at what he
did, that he said wasn't for girls? She couldn't even speak, only nod, her
eyes shining.

"Then come." He led her into the big, empty room. "What you just saw me do
was a very difficult kata, a kata for a master. There is a lot you have to
learn before you can do it like I can. Do you see that sign?"

"Hai, Otousan."

"Can you read it?"

She shook her head. Reading was one of the mysterious things she was too
little to learn, like cooking and numbers.

"It says I-ro-ha. That's the first word of a song that children used to
learn to help them remember the hiragana, so it means the beginning. The
basics. You have to master those before you can do more advanced things.
Now, the beginning of the Art is learning to stand. Can you knock a mountain
over by hitting it?"

Akane giggled. "No, Otousan!"

"Then if you stand like a mountain, nothing can knock *you* over. You place
your feet so..."

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NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.

I got this idea from watching the "I'll Be the One to Inherit Mother's
Recipes" OAV, and from watching my daughter trying to copy her brother's
moves when he practiced Tae Kwon Do, when she was still too young to start
her own training.

The forthcoming baby is my own invention.  We're never told how Mrs. Tendou
died, but Soun is so adamant about having a male heir for his precious dojo
in spite of Akane's talent and interest (and the fact that at least imo,
she'd be a very good teacher) -- what if she died trying to give him one?
Guilt would explain his disintegration better than anything else.

I'm sure most of you know these: nee-chan = big sis, Otousan = Father,
Okaasan = Mother.

A kamidana, or god-shelf, is a small shrine or altar.  It is usually found
in the main room of the house, but there is a very strong association in
Japan between Shinto and martial arts, and in the Tendou home the kamidana
is located in the dojo.  Bowing to the kamidana is a ritual similar to
bowing to the flags in an American martial arts school.

Iroha is, of course, the sign on the wall of the dojo.  It's the first word
of a Buddhist poem in which each sound in the Japanese syllabary occurs
once -- and only once.  Thus it was used for centuries as a mnemonic, until
the modern Fifty-Sounds Table was adopted.  Any good kanji dictionary should
have the text.  The fact that it's written right to left means it is very
old, pre-WWII at the latest, and possibly even older.  (Left-to-right
actually began to come into use in the late 1800s or early 1900s, according
to my reference books, and the two systems coexisted for a time so signs
might be written either way!)